Introduction: Multi-potent mesenchymal Stem cells residing in the adult dental pulp have been isolated and differentiated in previous studies. Dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) possess many advantages over bone marrow stem cells, such as ease of access, lower morbidity and higher proliferation rate, thus presenting as a highly potential candidate for use in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. To use DPSCs in tissue engineering and cell based therapies, genetic modification of these cells is needed. Chemical transfection reagents are commonly used to deliver target genes. However, they have the problem of cyto-toxicity. Electro-poration is a physical transfection method using high voltage electric pulses to allow transient permeabilization of cell membrane. However, electro-poration have the major disadvantage multiple parameters optimization to achieve acceptable transfection efficiency.
Aim: To investigate the transfection potential of DPSCs using electroporation after optimization and comparing it to one of the commonly used chemical transfection reagents (Lipofectamine- Invitrogen).
Methods: Teeth extracted for orthodontic purposes were collected after obtaining informed consents from the patients. Collected dental pulp tissues from were isolated, digested and cultured. Cells sub-cultured from different passages were transfected with EGFP plasmid with CAG promoter, using either electroporation with various transfection parameters (voltage, pulses, duration), or Lipofectamine- Invitrogen. Transfected Cells were stained for expression of MSC marker STRO-1. Results: With optimization of transfection parameters electro-poration showed comparable transfection results to Lipofectamine, regarding efficiency and viability
Conclusion: Electro-poration could be used for transfection of dental pulp stem cells with comparable results to chemical methods and less cyto-toxicity.